From January 1995 through December 2009, twenty children (8 boys and 12 girls with an onset at 5.7+/-3.8 years) that were diagnosed with transverse myelitis at a Children's Hospital in Korea, and undertaken an initial and follow-up spinemagnetic resonance image (MRI) were included. Medical records and spineMRI scans were reviewed retrospectively. An initial MRI was taken 5.1+/-8.7 days after the onset. The interval between an initial and follow-up MRIs was 33.4+/-23.0 days. The motor recovery differences between subjects with and without spinal cordatrophy on follow-up MRIs were determined. Motor recovery was defined as the elevation of one or more grades of manual muscle tests of the Medical Research Council.